A meeting convened in Italy in March to discuss the challenges facing researchers who are fleeing conflict in the Middle East and North Africa attracted policymakers, representatives of scientific and educational institutions, refugee agencies, and refugee scientists.

A virulent strain of bird flu resurfaced in China around April this year, threatening poultry farms in other countries and prompting the World Organisation for Animal Health to intensify control efforts in the region.

In August, the founders of leading robotics and artificial intelligence companies wrote an open letter to the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons calling for an international treaty to ban killer robots.